- Says court erred in ruling in favour of hemp cultivating company
- But company calls on court to ignore the state
The war between the state and Fresh Standard – a company licensed and exempted to cultivate cannabis sativa and hemp for industrial and medicinal purposes in Botswana – is playing out before the Gaborone High Court where each party is urging for the other’s case to be thrown out on the basis of failure to comply with court rules.
The state appealed the case after the court’s decision to set aside the decision of the Permanent Secretary in then Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security to withdraw the exemption granted to the company by then minister Patrick Ralotsia.
Fresh Standard says the revocation had prejudiced them because they had already spent millions of pula on the project following the licensing.
Violations
This week the lawyer for the state, Keikanetswe Moesi, sought to fault the High Court for ruling in favour of Fresh Standard, citing violation of court rules, especially filing out of time.
Whereupon the lawyer acting for Fresh Standard, Charles MacErick, sought to rubbish the claim and pleaded with the court to throw the state’s appeal out for filing 10 months after the court’s decision.
The Court of Appeal ruling will be delivered on 4 November 2022.